Power Considerations

[Drakkon]

Hoiw do you go about figuring what size PS is needed for your case? I mean I know that if I'm runnign a large ammount of components need something bigger but is there a general setup associated? like say i only wanted a HD...mobo..proc(duron)...integrated video and athe cpu fan running..wouldn't that only need like a 200 watt PS? or could I get away with less (a 180watt sfx ps possibly even)?
I also have a tower case with a radeon 8500 and cooling up the wazzu and 3 hard drives and 2 cd drives (dvd/cdrw) along with many usb periperials...run a 431 psu...and get power issues (black out restarts)...

Is there any mathematically to figure it all out or find out?

 

[gistech1978]

i was wondering the same thing.
im wanting to upgrade soon and im wondering if i should go ahead and get antec and save some potential problems.

 

[mEarles]

run your computer with all the components under some kind of load
test your 5v and 12v lines with a multimeter
if they're low, you need a better PSU
hope this helps

 

[WalMart1564]

dont cheap out on the psu man

go 300 to 350 and dont get some no-name brand many of them do NOT produce the power they are rated for


i use an antec 350w and have less components than you do

my 2cents

 

[Lizardman]

yes there is a way to figure it out. Amd has a sheet you can use to calculate the need power.

Look on page 10-12 of the pdf file

 

[Drakkon]

thank you lizard man exactly what i was hopin for!